miércoles, 12 de septiembre de 2007

A response to Mr. Calder´s “Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh and the Lost Truth” By Anthony Thompson Ph. D.

*English is not my first language, so forgive my misspellings and grammatical mistakes.

Mr .Calder, according to his own information, became a disciple of Osho back in 1970`s during the time that Osho resided in Woodlands apartments in Mumbai, then Bombay. He came to India in November 19 1970. Osho gave him the name of Sw. Krishna Christ “I was Rajneesh's second Western sannyasin just behind Ma Yoga Prem. Check out a first addition copy of "The Silent Explosion." I came up with the title and wrote the introduction. My sannyasin name was Swami Krishna Christ.”( Calder 2006). He did not particularly appreciate the name and he complained to Osho about it. Here he is an excerpt from a letter from Osho to Sw Krishna Christ, in answer to his complaint about the name, reproduced from “A Cup of Tea” (letter 327):

The ego is the seriousness, the disease,and the tao, the egoless existence,is the bliss, the ecstasy.That is why I have given you a name so absurd!But I have given it to you knowingly.I have given it to you so that you maynever be identified with it.The name is so absurdthat you will have to remainnameless and nobody behind it,and the name is such thatnot only others but you yourselfwill be able to laugh at it.Swami Krishna Christ!His name then was Walter Pfuetze. In 1971 his adopted father took a group of students to Woodlands Building in Bombay and met Achayra Rajneesh face to face. That is why his name was listed in early books as Swami Krishna Christ, aka "Walter Pfuetze." He changed his name in 1976 to Christopher Calder because he did not like German names. Besides he was British and was interested in the artist Alexander Calder.Somewhere along the way he got disillusioned and disappointed with Osho and wrote a fiery article against him.

Mr. Calder is entitled to have and state his own personal opinions or beliefs regarding Osho, his teachings and vision. As far as I know, Mr. Calder is a “simple student of meditation”, as he likes to call himself, and has no formal training in neuropsychology or neurophysiology. Therefore, his knowledge on the neurological functions of meditation, weather it’s biologically or spiritually based, he got from books, magazines, or in the worst case, internet.
I do not have information of his being part not any neurological research team or his having taken part of any field study about this subject. Personally I do not have more scientific knowledge of his affirmations than any normal “student of meditation”, however, some ideas fit with my personal experience. And I consider some ideas expressed by Mr. Calder to be brilliant. As I am not a neurologist either, I will not discuss such matters. And I will not discuss this because disagreeing or not on these points is not the matter of this article, but the misinformation and lies that he states in his article “Osho, Bhagwan Rajneesh, and the Lost Truth”, which are indeed matter of further consideration on my part. Mr. Calder gives the idea of his being an intimate disciple. However, No inner circle disciple from 1975 on had heard his name or remembers him from that time. This gives me the idea that he might have seen Osho personally during the time in the woodlands apartments, as many people did, but not after that, which is when the issues he discuss in his article supposedly happened. Therefore he is not an eyewitness to such events.

I do not agree or like everything that Osho said or did in his life. I am aware that the man did not compromise in any point and he did what he considered appropriate for him to do, and did not care about what people thought of him. I also know that most of the time it was “his way or the highway” with the people around him and his ideas of how things had to be done. However, as a researcher of his work, I feel compelled to clarify and refute the points and arguments used in Mr. Calder’s article that I think are simply not true or highly misinformed.

I am not a disciple and I do not consider Osho my master, but I can not hide my admiration for the old man. I think his contribution to expanding human awareness has no parallel in human history. There have been other masters, but no one has been so effective in reaching so many people during his lifetime as Osho did. Also, his insistence on laughter, enjoying life and humor as religious qualities makes him stand alone in the world of mystics. Finally, he helped to liberate, sexually and from social conditioning vast quantities of spiritual seekers that would have, otherwise, ended up ranking with some ascetic, repressive guru, and thus contributing with more repression and self-torture to this world.

I have researched on this subject for over 22 years now and I have interviewed a lot of current and former disciples, visitors and friends on this subject. I have been 8 times in his commune in India, now called Osho meditation resort. So, I consider myself an expert on this theme: Osho´s life and work.

Osho´s sayings Mr. Calder quotes Osho on several occasions. The way he does this is malicious and clearly his intention is not that of an expert detached observer, but that of a resentful lover. His intention is to create an image of Osho that becomes a pass way for his own feelings of anger and hurt.To be hurt or angry is Mr. Calder´s prerogative. However, to twist facts, quotes and ideas to spread the understanding that we are facing an evil character is just a manipulative and indirect way of giving an outlet to his own personal vendetta.

In my understanding it is utterly nonsense to pick up a few statements from Osho's more than 8500 hours of talks and evaluate him based on that. I can’t believe that a person like him, who claims to know him since ages, can do it. And a funny thing is, Osho himself never denied being contradictory, on a contrary he glorified it. So, to this day to take a quote from osho means nothing in itself. You can get the man to advice you on gardening, wall papers or sex. Out of a whole chapter reference a quote means nothing.

He quotes (without a direct book or chapter reference) that Osho loved Hitler. I have searched the entire library of his talks and that quote is nowhere to be found. Supposedly he took this quote from the discourses “I am the gate”. And certainly Mr. Calder appears as one of the editors of the first edition. No where he said “I loved Hitler”. What he says is something that is of public domain, and that is that Hitler had an alliance with Tibetan esoteric groups. In fact the Tibetans supported the third Reich. Where do we think "the swastika" came from? It is an old esoteric symbol used both by Jains and Tibetans. The Nazis just turned it around.

The only thing that I have found is an interview in Der Spiegel. I have seen the video (The last testament, july 19, 1985), and Osho says to both journalists, Erick Widdeman and Reiner Weber, when he is asked about Hitler “I love the Man. He was Crazy”, jokingly to see their reactions. To what both German journalist look shocked. Later he adds that “he considers the man to be completely immoral and a murderer”, and he compares him with mahatma Gandhi. Not to speak positive about Hitler, but to show how immoral mahatma Gandhi was, in his view, for being against technology in a poor country like India and preaching celibacy and self-torture. Now, the article in Der Spiegel, edited of course, show Osho comparing Hitler and Gandhi as saying both were great men. "Hitler was like Gandhi" can be read as the article heading. This is the way how things are distorted by the yellow press.

I have found some other quotes about Hitler and Gandhi and his arguments about it.

"Just think: if Adolph Hitler had been a cripple or had amoebas or was continuously getting hepatitis, the world would have been saved. In fact, Adolph Hitler was against smoking, against alcohol. He was a pure vegetarian like Mahatma Gandhi. In fact, both men have many things in common. Both believed in going early to bed and both believed in getting up early in the morning. Both believed that vegetarian food is great. Both believed that smoking is bad, alcohol is bad. Both were great saints! Both were equally dangerous and psychopathic. The only difference was that Mahatma Gandhi had the Jaina characteristic very much developed in him -- he was only ten percent Hindu, ninety percent Jaina -- so he tortured himself. Adolph Hitler had the Mohammedan characteristic developed in him: he tortured others, he didn't torture himself. But both tortured. Whom they tortured is not of that much significance. They both were enjoying torture. ... "(1980, Zen: Zest, Zip, Zap and Zing)

"To torture oneself or to torture others, both are diseases -- the very idea to torture. Somebody is an Adolph Hitler, he tortures others; somebody is a Mahatma Gandhi, he tortures himself. Both are in the same boat -- maybe standing back to back, but standing in the same boat. Adolph Hitler's joy is in torturing others, Mahatma Gandhi's joy is in torturing himself, but both are violent. The logic is the same -- their joy depends on torture. Their direction is different, but the direction is not the question, their mind has the same attitude: torture. You respect a person who tortures himself because you don't understand the logic of it. Adolph Hitler is condemned all over the world and Gandhi is worshipped all over the world, and I am simply puzzled. How is it possible? -- because the logic is the same. "(1977, Tao: The Pathless Path)

In addition, there are of course innumerable times where Osho describes Hitler as a pygmy, as occupying the lowest rank a human being can sink to, etc.Misquoting Osho, or quoting him out of context, is one of the favorite and most despicable pastimes of Mr. Calder.

A quote of two lines means nothing out of a context nowadays. As an example: Osho said “esoteric means bullshit” from the talks “From Bondage to freedom” in 1985. And “everything that is valuable is esoteric” from the talks “Beyond psychology” in 1986.Osho himself once said “You need not agree with what I say; you can only agree with me directly. There is no need to come through what I say. I say a thousand and one things and I contradict myself everyday. If you start agreeing with me you will go mad! You can’t agree; nobody can’t agree with a what I say . You can only agree with a few points but those will not be all that I say. Contradiction is my method. I go on shattering. I go on shocking, offending people; that is may method, to shatter people’s beliefs” (Osho, 1980, The Open Secret).

Therefore, I think Osho´s words need to be taken not as a comprehensive philosophy, but rather as a seductive invitation to self-explore and understand the nature of mind, body, emotions, and the role of meditation in this search.Besides, the discourses were given many times as responses to individuals, and in several occasions he was answering not only the question but the questioner himself/herself. I can remember his speaking against the women’s lib movement to a radical feminist and then saying the exact opposite to male chauvinist south American. Or talking about god to an atheist and then saying it was a lie to a catholic priest. ("The ultimate risk", 1980 by Satya Bharti)

The “Cult” StoryMr. Calder speaks of the sannyas movement referring to it as a “cult”. I strongly disagree with his statements of Osho´s movement being a cult. Why?: Simply because some of the pre-requisites to have any sort of cult, is to have systematic body or set of beliefs. A complete belief system that explains everything in terms of itself. As Mr. Calder’s knows, and has consistently argued so, Osho contradicted himself a lot. It is practically impossible to create a cult out of his words. The only consistent idea in his talks is that of awareness and meditation. The rest is simply not systematic enough to do anything with it.
If you are going to join a sect, you need to have something to believe...some promise of paradise or future enlightenment. You don’t join a sect that tells you that “you are already a Buddha, enlightened” (from “The heart sutra”) and that you just “need to come back home. However you are, you are beautiful the way your are” (from “The Goose is Out”).

My understanding is that Osho´s work was mainly deprogramming people against their self constructed ideas about love, spirituality, growth, relationships, etc. In fact if you want you can find statements where he speaks of karma and reincarnation and then another statement where he says there is no soul, no reincarnation (see “Reincarnation a Misconception” discourse given in 1989) , and that karma is just a way of social control. He speaks of god and then says there is no such a thing and it is just a” teddy bear” for fearful people.

Second, you need rituals that people, old and new, can join to. And nowadays there is nothing like that. Even the celebration of his death and birthday, and his pictures, or the “sannyas giving” have been removed as official celebrations in the Osho resort in India. Anyone can go there and verify and see if there is any “blind cult” happening.

Third, a cult does not admit dissent, and Mr. Calder and I have been writing and discussing in a sannyas owned website and the quotes he took from Parmartha´s article are also discussions criticizing Osho in sannyas websites.Sannyasins tend to be free, open minded, closed, fanatics, or careless... as any human being can be. But there is no official enforced dogma on believing or agreeing on anything.The proof of this is that sannyasins are the single group of spiritual seekers that you can find practically at the feet of any master, or new therapy or mind expanding method. You can see them in shamanism, ayurveda, Kalindi´s, Diamond logos, work, etc, etc, in addition to their ranking with different therapeutic schools.

Fourth, you need someone to believe in, some savior, and Osho himself advised his disciples not to believe in him unless it was their direct experience (Golden nuggets). And repeatedly he told his disciples he was “no savior or prophet or only begotten son of god, just an ordinary human being, like you” (Osho 1985, Interviews with the Press). Or "a master is not someone who has archive anything. a master is someone who has discovered that there is nothing to Achieve"(Dying for enlightenment, 1979, By Bernard Gunther)

My research shows that Osho was no " Deepak Chopra". The man was a rebellious iconoclast who did and said what he thought was his truth. He demolished the catholic church, The Islam and any form of organized religion; he spoke against mother Theresa, Gandhi (precisely for being against technology, which Osho strongly advocated, not as Mr. Calder’s affirmation in his article).
Osho, was a man who saw no use for rituals, discipline and all the self-torture that is going on in the name of renunciation or spirituality. The development of self-awareness was his flag. More over, he spoke against Indian traditions. Reason enough for the attempted murder against him in early eighties in Poona, by a fanatic Hindu during a public talk.

He thought of the meeting of east and west, of materialism and spirituality. "Zorba the Buddha", he called his "new man". And certainly he did not live the life of an ascetic. But beyond all, he helped his disciples and friends to be independent and rebellious individuals.

Calder’s suppositionsCalder states “Rajneesh's poor health and strange symptoms were a product of real neurological and immune system dysfunction, not some esoteric super sensitivity caused by his enlightenment. Rajneesh also had Type II diabetes, asthma, and severe back pain.” According to him and his conclusions Osho had “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)”. Now this is simply his own idea, not based in any medical diagnosis made by any certified doctor.He also states: “Rajneesh used prescription drugs, mainly Valium (diazepam), as an analgesic for his aches and pains and to counter the symptoms of dysautonomia (dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system). He took the maximum recommended dose of 60 milligrams per day. Rajneesh also inhaled nitrous oxide (N2O) mixed with pure oxygen, which he claimed increased his creativity. The nitrous oxide probably did relieve the sensation of severe exhaustion and suffocation patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome often feel, but it did nothing for the quality of his judgment. Naive about the power of drugs, and overconfident of his ability to fight off their negative effects, Rajneesh succumbed to addiction.”
Now this information that is stated as a “fact” comes, in fact, from second hand sources which are Hugh Milne´s book “The god that failed” and an Interview that Sheela, former Osho secretary, denounced by the master, gave to Stern magazine in Germany and 60 minutes in CBS in USA. Sheela was angry at Osho. She was actually enraged with the man, after all it was his accusations that threw her into jail. And also it was a way to undermine Amrito´s (Osho´s doctor) work. We should not forget that she tried to kill him at the ranch. And this has been documented. Now, a simple reflection would be to try to drive a car each day in the awful ranch roads with 60 milligrams of valium in the body and not to crash into the hundreds of sannyasins standing by the side of the road to greet him.

Consulted eye witnesses to these two accusations refuted Milne´s and Sheela´s accusations, and of course, Calder´s statements:
Devageet, Osho personal dentist from Poona one, to the end of Osho´s life stated: “Osho never used nitrous oxide, I used it, as his dentist, during his dental treatment sessions. Osho, as other masters have demonstrated (see Baba Neem karolie taking a massive dose of LSD on his first meeting with Guru Ram Dass, and showing no effects whatsoever), showed that the effects of Nitrous Oxide during his dental treatment had no effects of diminishing his clarity and awareness. He repeatedly showed that he could easily use the physiological effects of relaxation for a creative purpose, hence the three books dictated while in the dental chair: “Notes of a Madman”, “Books I have loved”, and “Glimpses of a Golden Childhood”. Having said that I can speak about aspects which do not betray that trust. Nitrous Oxide is a valid and valued analgesic and anesthetic agent, as you know, and it still provides the basis of anesthetic techniques because of its proven track record of safety and efficacy. It is a fact too that people have used it for leisure purposes. Osho was given nitrous oxide in a purely dental context."

Also, Sw. Jalal the dental equipment technician stated the following: “during the Ranch and in Poona 2 I was the dental room technician, responsible for looking after the equipment. Unless Osho was having surreptitious sessions without my knowledge, he wasn't using gas on a daily, or even weekly basis.” This is to the claim that Mr. Calder made to me that Devageet had told that Osho used "N02 for months on end". Which is just a lie or a misinformation.In his article he claims to know that Osho took LSD and was drugged with N02 and Valium all the time, in his ranch house in USA. He had no access to any eyewitness of such accounts. The only people who had personal access to Osho in those days were Devaraj, Devageet, ashu, Nityamo, Vivek, Sheela, Hasya, Shunyo, nirupa and later anando, neelam and jayesh. None of these people have ever stated anything remotly like this... and in fact have refuted Mr. Calder’s accusations as fictions and fabrications on his part.
To my reply that the N02 was used in dental sessions only he replied “No one dictates books while having dental surgery, and no dental surgery lasts for months.” First, the books were dictated in “the context” of dental sessions. It does not mean that he was speaking with the drill in his mouth...which is quite difficult indeed. We do not know how long the team of Devaraj, Devageet and their assistant Ashu stayed together listening to Osho. Second, two of the so called Books “Notes of a mad man” and “Books I have loved” are actually small pamphlets. Consisting of 13 sessions the first and 16 sessions the second. Both are small books, although they have been printed to look like glossy hard bounds in recent editions, the original ones were paperbacks with colorful pictures in them with a size not exceeding a pocked book. If you read out loud what is said in each session it would not take you more than 8 minutes and in some cases no more than 2.
The other book “Glimpses of a golden childhood” is actually a thick lengthy book that was spoken at the beginning of Osho´s residence in Rajneeshpuram , Oregon. Although it is considerable bigger than the other two books. If you read any chapter out loud it will not take you more than 15 minutes. Those are the lengths he spoke for each session. So we can guess and speculate that in the first years of the ranch, lets say, 1982, 1983, and the beginning of 1984 ( the books were published in late ´84, early ´85) theses books were taken from the “context” of dental sessions were the anesthetic used by Osho´s dentist was N02. None of this is a proof “of dental sessions lasting for months” or “Osho, N02 addiction.”

And a final point I would like to make, why should the master, with his own commune, go to all the trouble of setting up dental sessions and having his teeth removed just because he enjoys having laughing gas? I certainly wouldn't go to all that trouble, I'd just set up a bottle next to my armchair and get blasted in peace and quiet. So, why did he call any dental sesions? He could not open the faucet?

Mr. Calder uses in his article a text From Jim Weaver where this congressman states that he saw nitrous oxide spigots by the side of the bed of Rajneesh´s room in Rajneeshpuram in USA. This Weaver text that Christopher keeps referring to and which is available at http://home.att.net/~medi tation/Weaver.html is obviously not reliable. Just one paragraph above the famous spigots, Weaver writes, with seemingly remarkable clarity of memory:“Two days later, the Bhagwan and Ma Anand Sheela absconded from the Big Muddy, attempting to flee the country, and leaving their acolytes high and dry. On the same day, the two Prineville BLM chiefs announced their resignations.”

There is just a little problem … nothing like this happened. Sheela left on her own for Germany, Osho stayed in Oregon and denounced her to the press. Now I am supposed to believe this kind of witness?That’s before we come to telling apart, say, an oxygen spigot for a known asthma sufferer from a nitrous oxide spigot … if indeed there were any spigots at all.

I exchanged some posts in a website with Mr. Calder and when I produced the evidence and arguments of true eyewitnesses to the events he was reporting in relation to Osho´s drug addiction he wrote to me: “When I visited the Oregon ranch in the 1980s I could tell he was on drugs just by looking at him. No one even had to tell me.” (Calder, 2007). This was his final eyewitness proof. He saw him with 15.000 thousand people, perhaps no less than 40 meters away, I do not think he got front seat at the ranch. And he “could tell” he was on drugs. Wow! Even I can not tell all the time when my friends are on drugs in parties at my own house. But, again, perhaps I am just not so perceptive.When I discussed this point with Mr. Calder he called me “dishonest, crazy, fanatic and neurotic.. and in denial”. Then he proceeded to call me "Insane" and that I have to go "back to my straight jacket", to finally add that Osho "would have not liked me". All through out our discussion, in different forums, he consistently insulted me and pushed aside my arguments saying I was an "insane cult follower". All this, Simply because of my disagreeing with his second-hand information.So, his ultimate proof is his perception of Osho. If he felt it...then, it must be true.

Mr. Calder sourcesMost of his sources, as I said before, were the books written by two angry ex-disciples Sw. Shivamurti (Hugh Milne) and ma Satya Bharti. I have personally interviewed some people mentioned in Milne’s Book and they have reassured me that many stories of his book are complete fabrications, like the story of the mango uses in tantra groups and the fact that he was Osho´s personal bodyguard. Milne was not Osho´s personal Bodyguard. He was Laxmi´s. (Osho´s secretary at the time). Osho´s bodyguard was Sw. Vimalkirti. Milne was just guarding the Darshan sessions when Osho spoke to his disciples. He was the ahsram osteopath, and had somehow a special position in Poona one, which was not where he found himself later in The Ranch in Oregon. He had to drive a bulldozer and obey the orders of Ma Anand Sheela, Osho´s new secretary. He was the one who reported to have seen Osho inhaling Nitous Oxide in his house. He failed to see that that was the anesthetic being used in a dental session and not the recreational endeavor of the master. Actually, Hugh Milne´s book should have been called "The Secretary who failed", because all the problems reported in the book were with Sheela not Osho.It is interesting to note that Hugh Milne (sw. Shivamurti) had psychiatric problems. He was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and ended up consulting witches and trying to kill himself. (Milne 1986)
This is Mr. Calder´s source, and key witness, together with the introduction to one of the books that Osho dictated from the dental sessions and under the effect of this anesthetic.

When I confronted Mr Calder with the quotes from Devageet, he just wrote that “Devageet was a crazy man” and so was I. Therefore my disagreeing with his second-hand information made me into a “fanatic cult follower”.

The other source of information is the Book “The Promise of Paradise” by Satya Bharti Franklin. She was an early disciple who wrote two previous celebratory books about the life in the ashram and hes experiences with Osho. In her book, she speaks about the rumors of Osho touching, or having sex with his disciples early in Bombay. That is where Mr. Calder, together with Milne´s stories constructed the idea that “ ( He ) stated that he made love to his young female disciples because it would ensure their enlightenment in a future life” (Calder 2007).This is sheer invention. Mr. Calder is not a witness to this account. Unless, of course, he was holding the camera while the master spoke these words and had sex in the privacy of his bedroom. I strongly doubt Mr. Calder was invited as a voyeur to such sessions.
I do not think that Osho was celibate, more over he overtly admitted not to be so, but still I have not find one single disciple to testify to have had sex with the man. I have however found accounts of people who heard other people saying they had sex with him and I have no reason to doubt that.Again, He did not preach celibacy. In fact he considered it a disease.

A quote of Osho himself speaking about his sex-life. It is in The Last Testament, Vol. 1, 22 July 1985 pm in Jesus Grove, and goes like this:

Q: HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CELIBATE?
A: Right now I am celibate, but if my health gets better I am not going to be celibate. I have never been celibate. I do not do anything against nature. Right now I am celibate not because celibacy has any value, but just because I am sick. I don't have any energy to make love to a woman and do all the gymnastics, no. I have enough energy to talk to my people, to talk to you. If I get healthy again, I promise you, I will not be celibate.
The Sheela Story

Both Milne and Bharti had serious conflicts with Sheela´s fascist style in the Commune in USA. They both assumed that Osho was behind her actions. In fact she usually said that the “order comes from the chief” to convince someone to do something they felt their consciousness would not allow. So people thought it was a “devise” from the master. Now, Osho and his personal staff have clarified that many “orders” did not only not come from Him, but were deliberate moves on Sheela´s part to expand her power to areas where it was weak, such as the inner circle of the personal staff around Osho.This area that was not under her command in the commune. In fact the attempted murder of Osho´s doctor was a move in this direction.
Many people were expelled from the commune in Oregon and big international and prosperus communes like Medina in England and Sushila´s in Autralia, were closed down because they were too successful and independent from Sheela ´s regime. Osho knew nothing about it (we must remember he was not speaking in public or having personal contact with his disciples) and to all of them it was said that it was Osho´s order.Sheela´s fascist style developed over time as a response to the intense antagonism that the commune created around them . There were 17 state agencies trying to get them out of there; the sign announcing the nearby commune was used as shooting target by the local resident of the area; the hotel they bought in Portland was bombed, and even there is convincing evidence that the CIA hired someone to kill Osho. All this has been documented in the books "Passage to America" by Max Brecher and, "The way of the heart" By Judith Thompson, and "rajneesh garden", by Dell Murphy. Also, it can be checked Juliette Forman´s accout of the time and Ms appletton´s Book. I do not justify Sheela´s behaviour and I think she was criminally minded. But it certainly creates a context to view what these guys were facing. For further details see: Or for a complete story of Osho´s commune see: http://www.ashe-prem.org/two/davisson.shtml

Also, in his article, Mr. Calder joins, or at least holds morally responsible, Osho´s arrest and deportation from USA with Sheela´s crimes. What he fails to see is that all those crimes, the salmonella poisoning, the intent of murder of Osho´s doctor, Devaraj, and the plot against the attorney general, the bugging of the commune, including Osho´s own room, were crimes committed by Sheela and her associates.
These crimes were exposed by Osho and it was him who invited the FBI to investigate them in his own commune. Which ultimately lead to the capture of Sheela and her friends in Germany. If he had kept silent, no one would have ever guessed or known about them. We should know that the salmonella poisoning in The Dalles was attributed to "improper food handling" by the authorities. Now this is referred to by the media as “The only American case of Bio-terrorism”.

We could argue that Osho had a poor eye for choosing his secretary or that she changed over time, or that he should have been more involved in controlling what she did in his name, but we can not accuse him of crimes that include him as a victim, such as the wire-tapping of his own room. To think of Osho as omniscient or infallible is nothing but a god-like father projection. He was a human being. Wise, awake, but a human being. He himself said when a journalist asked him “if he was enlightened how he did not know about theses crimes?”. His answer was “enlightenment means I know myself. It does not mean that I know that my room is being bugged” (Osho, Interviews with the press, 1985)

One of the points that Mr. Calder gives more attention is to the "fact" that Osho never apologized to the sufferers for what happened in the commune, neither he took any responsability about it. He even compares him with a teacher who puts a drunken sailor to drive a school bus and then denies responsability.
Again, Mr. calder bluntly lies. On september 19, 1985 Osho said (this is recorded in the discourses From Bondage to Freedom): "I take blame for everything that happened". And then the next day he added: That is why I have said I am responsible for whatever happened_becasuse you are fast asleep(...) Neither can I say sheela and her Group are responsible. They belong to the same category as you. They had power and in their sleep they did whatever sleep allows you to do. So the whole resbonsability is basically mine. I should not have gone into silence and isolation.
The law, perhaps, may not allow it, but this is my deepest longing: that Sheela and her group should be forgiven, and if any punishment is needed they should give it to me.
Only i am responsible, because I went into silence. I had never thought that silence can lead to such calamity.

Osho´s factual “criminal” records

As far as criminal records is concerned, Osho´s criminal records (as Mr. Calder mentioned it to me) and reasons for his deportation are just two charges of immigration fraud. He was accused, First, of arranging sham marriages. And second, of lying on the tourist visa application, in the sense that he stated he did not intend to stay in the states and later he tried to stay.

It is just not possible for Osho to have arranged any marriage due to the fact that he did not see any disciples in private. Marriages were certainly arranged to allow foreign sannyasisn to live in the commune. But these are the sole responsibility of the people involved. To hold osho responsible for this is just stupid. it is as charging the Pope for any catholic staying ilelgally in Rome.

In relation to the second charge,according to his attorney, Niren, and the research he did, no one in the whole history of the United states has been even prosecuted by such "offense" and, what to say about the half a million dollar fine that he was forced to pay for his release.To come to the US in a tuirist visa with the "hidden intention" of eventually applying for a permanent one is not a " crime" that anyone, ever, has been chaged for.

The attorney general said when he was asked why Osho was not accused of the same crimes as Sheela that “I did not have any proof whatsoever linking Rajneesh to Sheela´s crimes.” And “all we wanted was to dismantle the commune”. And he forgot to add that the complaint that lead to Sheela ´s arrest was filed by Osho himself.

In his article Mr. Calder says a that Osho lied about not knowing about the wire tapping. I do not think he sent his room to be bugged. Also he did not denounce Sheela, as he states, when he suspected she was stealing money from him, but when she left the commune and people started coming up with the stories of her crimes...including the money stealing.

All through out his article Mr. Calder confuses facts with his personal opinion based on second hand information, and assumptions, such as when he quotes Sheela´s statement on Osho using 60 milligrams of valium a day. Suddenly the cheat, liar criminal becomes a reliable source of information. How convenient.

The growth groupsIn the early editions of his article (1998), he questions the development of growth groups in the ashram, saying that they have nothing to do with enlightenment or meditation or the search of truth and that the only reason for their inclusion in the activities was to bust the ashram´s economy. What mr. Calder ignores is that these experiments, blending western humanistic psychotherapies with eastern mysticism became the base for further developments in humanistic-transpersonal psychologies.
This became the most important psycho-spiritual experiment in counter cultural psychology since the establishment of Esalen Institute in California, as it has been documented in the Spanish book De Esalen Poona. Osho y el camino de la psicología humanista-transpersonal. (“From Esalen to Poona. Osho and the development of humanistic- transpersonal psychology”) By J. C. Saez Editor, Santiago, Chile, by Vikrant A. Sentis.
As a proof of this we had the pilgrimage to the ashram in Poona of hundreds of the most well known western humanistic psychotherapists and group leaders such as: Will Schutz, the creator of Encounter Groups; Bernard Gunther, bestselling author and creator of Esalen Massage and developer of Sensory Awareness; Richard price, disciple of Fritz Perls, co-founder of Esalen Institute; Leonard Zunnin and Andy Farber from the Neurological and Psychiatric American Board; David Boadella, developer of biosíntesis; John Bell, inventor of Unitive Psychology; Gerda Boyesen, inventor of Biodynamic Psychology; Dr, Yusson, creator of Humaniversity psychology; Thomas Thorbe, developer of the co-dependency work; Dr. Robert Birnbaum, disciple of Perls, Bernie and Carl Rogers, director of Odissey Center; Paul Lowe, founder of the British Association for Humanistic Psychology, Michael Barnett, renowned author and founder of PNP and Community Growth Center; Alexander Everent, developer of the Alfa Training and his disciple Werner Erhard, founder of Est Training; among hundreds of others. The complete list and their perils in Poona can be found in Mr. Sentis book. Some of theses people studied under Osho for a while and then went on their way, some others stayed up to this day.

The Rolls royce story The main issue of controversy while Osho lived in the US was the ownership of 93 Rolls Royces. Everybody was shocked. But noone bothered to consider that there was something strange about the whole thing. Isn´t strange that someone who supossedly would like to be considered a spiritual teacher, and gather followers, as Mr. Calder believes, dares to have 93 rolls royces and be open and public about that?
The normal thing would have been to try to pretend to be humble and ascetic. After all, that is our cultural conditioning around spirituallity, isn´ it?
Well, I think OSHO HAD SOMETHING ELSE IN MIND: To make a joke out of amerian consumerism. Tom Robbins (The famous American novelist), check his interview in http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq7IUM4lCrs, called this affair “the greatest spoof on american consumerism ever made”.
I think he was right. He was just calling the attention: he himself said "no one was listening to me in USA before the Rolls Royces came along. While their mouths are dropping open perhaps I can pour some truth in."
Also, I think he was challenging our conditioning about spirituallity and materialism.I do not think any spiritual master who would have liked to be appreciated would have made such a show... because it was a show with a fleet of cars. His intention was to say something else. The same about the watches, which by the way, most of them were made of quartz not diamonds...but the idea was that they would look like diamonds.

Calder´s death theoryMr. calder argues that he thinks that Osho died of “the addiction effects” of N02. He said to me in our discussion “Rajneesh was destroyed by illness and by his own drug use.... the official cause of his death was listed as heart failure, but there was much speculation he committed suicide. If he did commit suicide, I am sure they used morphine or barbiturates”. Now, these exceptional ideas come from Mr. Calder´s talent to “feel” or “tell” how people die.
Because actually nobody knows for sure what killed the man. The doctors consulted thought that the case looked like heavy metal poisoning. As they could not trace anything in the blood , they thought of Thalium, as it can not be traced in the bloodstream after a while. This was told to Osho and then he and his personal staff concluded that the only place where this could have happened was while held in custody in USA for his immigration trial. It is a proven fact that he was held in a jail in Oklahoma under the false name of David Washington. It is assumed throughout Mr. Calder´s article that Osho 'regularly used nitrous oxide' in the dental chair, without any clarification of what 'regularly' means. It could mean once or twice a year. But the assumption, or rather, the implication here is that it was on a daily basis. One does not get nitrous poisoning just by using it a few times a year. And yet there is absolutely no evidence that Osho used laughing gas more than that. Nor that he had nitrous poisoning. We are just asked to accept this as "fact".Mr. Calder says that the poisoning does not equate with thalium poisoning symptoms. Now, as far as I know, Mr. Calder is not a doctor and at the worst he could have got the information from internet.
Now, in the webpage for thalium poisoning says “Note that Thallium poisoning symptoms usually refers to various symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase Thallium poisoning signs may refer to those signs only noticeable by a doctor.”

Mr. Calder´s argument is that the main symptom for Thalium poisoning is hair loss. Well, Osho did loose his hair in huge quantities, as it was reported by Anando, his persobnal secretary. Usually the hair is not lost in the beard, but in the head, where Osho was certainly bald... and had been for some time. Here is a quote from Osho on the subject:

“Dr. Dhyan Yogi, immediately took my blood samples, urine samples, samples of my hair, and went to England, to Germany, to the best experts. The European experts suggest that after two years there is no poison, which can be detected in the body, but all the symptoms show that a certain poison has been given. No resistance against disease, falling weight without any reason, hair falling out without any reason, tingling sensations in the extremities, loss of appetite, tastelessness, nausea, the bone pain in my right hand ... One of the experts, a doctor from Germany had come twice to check my bone; he could not figure out what kind of disease it is - because there is no disease. The expert here - Dr. Hardikar, a man who loves me - has been here continuously watching for three months and has not been able to figure out why this pain should be there. The European experts in England and Germany have suggested a name of a certain poison, thalium. It is a poison of a family of poisons of heavy metals. It disappears from the body in eight weeks' time, but leaves its effects and destroys the body's resistance against diseases. And all the symptoms that I have told you are part of thalium poisoning. The American experts have suggested a different poison, which they think has been used by governments against rebellious individuals. The name of the poison is synthetic heroin. It is one thousand times more dangerous than ordinary heroin. All the symptoms are the same as with thalium, but the poison is more dangerous and after two years there is no possibility to find any trace of it in the body. The Japanese experts, who have been working in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on atomic radioactivity, have suggested that these symptoms can also be created in a more sophisticated way by radioactive exposure - either while I was asleep, or food can be exposed to radioactivity and there is no way to find any trace of it. One of the scientists who is immensely interested in me is coming within a week or two. He has been working for twenty years only on radioactivity. His suggestion is that the Americans, the bureaucracy in America, must have used the most sophisticated poisoning which leaves no trace.”(Osho, November 6, 1987)However, the doctors might have been wrong and the toxin used was not Thalium...or there was no toxin. Who knows. Diagnosis is not as infallible as the Pope. But the fact is that Osho died at 59 years of age and his health was certainly deteriorating since the US deportation. Now, Mr. Calder argument is that his death is the result of N02 addiction. Well, it has been already proved that the people who used this gas on him, used it only during dental sessions as anaesthtic.

Therefore the possibility of being poisoned by N02 is out of question. We could argue that those people (His dentist and technician, and caretakers) are lying to protect Osho´s vice. But then, if we begin with that argument, then everybody could be lying, including myself, Mr. Calder, Osho, his personal stuff... Then we have nothing to hold on to and all this discussion is irrelevant. What I have done is taking eyewitnesses account as facts, for the argument sake, and then contrast it with second–hand information. Not only that, second-hand emotionally motivated information. It is clear from Mr. Calder letters, articles, and responses, that he is emotionally driven, as myself, to discuss what we think is the truth.

I can only suppose or guess what is Mr. Calder motivation. But from his writing I feel that he is basically hurt. Perhaps he felt cheated by Osho, perhaps he felt stupid believing in what he said, perhaps as he states it, he felt Acharya Rajneesh lost the way, or perhaps, honestly, he felt that the man was wrong and he felt compelled to lead a crusade against this “criminal demential, liar”. I do not know. But what I do know is that as far as second hand information I have closer and more reliable ones: The actual people involved in the stories he tells. And, of course, bibliographical references for the quotes I use. Not just words I assume I heard, or heard someone else saying them. I insist: A quote without a reference is a lie. And Mr Calder lies a lot.

athompsonphd@hotmail.com

*Feel free to copy and distribute this article, as long as you make reference to its source.

* Also, I want to thank all the people who helped me to construct this article with their own arguments such as Phil, Jayen,P.R., Jalal, Devageet.